With the widespread use of computers and networks (e.g., the Internet) vast amounts of information are getting generated and exchanged throughout the world. Organizing and managing all this information is a major challenge. A very important and widely used method of organizing information, for efficient reading and comprehension by humans, is to arrange information elements into two dimensional formats like matrices and tables. The advantage of such tabulated formats is that the two dimensional display structure can be used to quickly convey the relationships between various information elements and to make comparisons.
While reading tabulated information on a display screen or printed page it is a convenience if such information can be read from one view or page rather than having to go to the next view or page or having to scroll. Scrolling is generally resorted to if the dimensions of any display format exceed those of the display screen or the display window. Even if a single view or page is not feasible it is desirable to minimize the number of views or pages or the proportion of scrolling, through compacted display formats. Compacted presentation of information may also be useful when several related documents or composite documents (containing tabular information, free flowing textual matter, graphs and pictures) have to be accommodated within a predetermined display or print space constraint.
Column and row sizes in interactively created matrices are generally determined without prior precise calculation of display space requirement of information that will ultimately appear in each cell. Often users have to manually resize the columns and rows by trial and error until a most acceptable result is obtained. Sometimes text in some cells may need to be manually changed or abbreviated to avoid overflow and truncation of information. Often there is wastage of space in cells.
The prior art methods for rendering information array displays do not describe methods for accommodating the information array within a two dimensional display space constraint especially when the available display space is less than the display space requirement of the information array elements. Generally, even if a two dimensional space constraint (i.e., width constraint and height constraint) is specified it is merely taken as an indicative and non-binding guideline. For example, if a limited two dimensional space is specified for displaying an information array, only the width constraint guideline may be adhered to and the height used for displaying may be extended as required without regard to the specified height constraint.
Thus, methods are needed for rendering information array displays within predetermined two dimensional space constraints such that loss of readability (or reading comfort) and wastage of space are minimized. Information array elements may include images in addition to or instead of text. Methods are needed to strike a balance between the reduction of image sizes and reduction of text font sizes within information array display to cope with severe display space constraint situations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,857 is designed to compact and display entries from one record at a time. The methods of that invention are not designed for allocating space for displaying each element of a two dimensional information array within a two dimensional space constraint.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,579 describes methods for compressing cell data such that the data fits into the available cell space. Said methods include, blank space deletion, synonym conversion, and character size reduction. However these methods are largely interactive and cell sizes are not determined with reference to the display space requirement in the cells.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,621,876 relates to “Method And Apparatus For Modifying A Display Matrix In A Computer Window By Adding One Column Or Row At A Time”. The method includes computing reduced width or height in existing columns or rows to accommodate the added column or row. However, reduced width or height of columns or rows is not computed with reference to the display space requirement in the cells.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,070 describes a “Display Control Apparatus Having A Display Of Text Data And Image Data And Display Control Method For The Same”. In this invention the size of the cells is not determined based on the amount of data to be displayed therein. As a result, all the data may not be displayed in a cell and thus interactive scrolling may be required in individual cells to read the complete display.
In HTML documents (viewed using user agents such as Internet Explorer) information array displays (i.e., HTML Tables) are formatted automatically, controlled by the system of tags and notations and the length (e.g., width of the longest text element in the column) of the information array elements. The method of column width allocation based on the longest text element in the column generally results in largest width to the column containing the cell with the longest text element. This may result in wasteful allocation of space to that column. There are no methods to minimize this wasteful allocation of display space. In HTML Tables overall height and width limits, if specified, are merely indicative, particularly the height limit. Thus rows containing a disproportionately large information array element will be allocated excessive height leading to space wastage in other cells of such rows and also the overall height of the Table may exceed the specified height limit.
Information about HTML Tables is available at the World Wide Web Consortium website at www.w3.org.
Six International Applications which relate to “Processing Layout Of Text Graphical Objects” have been filed by Curl Corporation, USA and have been published by the World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO). The details of these applications are as follows:
#Intl. Publn. No.Publn. DateIntl. Appln. No.1.WO 01/09832Feb. 8, 2001PCT/US00/199992.WO 01/09834Feb. 8, 2001PCT/US00/196553.WO 01/09835Feb. 8, 2001PCT/US00/198764.WO 01/09838Feb. 8, 2001PCT/US00/197175.WO 01/09839Feb. 8, 2001PCT/US00/197696.WO 01/09840Feb. 8, 2001PCT/US00/19917These applications do not describe methods for displaying elements of a two dimensional information array within a predetermined two dimensional display space constraint.
There are three trends which highlight the problem of display space constraint:    a) The popularity of windowing environments which enable viewing of several windows at the same time within a single display unit of a computer.    b) The miniaturization of personal computers into notebooks and subnotebooks with smaller display units.    c) The appearance of a number of personal devices, such as pocket PCs, PDAs and internet enabled mobile phones which, though not providing the complete functionality of any personal computer, may prove to be increasingly popular even as mere information handling and communication devices, designed to enhance personal effectiveness, efficiency and convenience. Further technology developments, leading to improved display units and more powerful processors at reduced prices, are bound to make such devices more and more useful and cost effective. In such devices the display space constraint is particularly severe because of the very small display units.In all three cases there is urgent need for compacted presentation of information to overcome the display space constraint.
Our International Application No: PCT/IN99/00064, filed on: Nov. 16, 1999 and published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) with International Publication No.: WO 00/38076 on Jun. 29, 2000 describes methods for abbreviating text in computer software. The same invention is also described in our Indian Patent Application No: 827/BOM/1998 filed on: Dec. 21, 1998 and our U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/256,286 filed on: Feb. 23, 1999. A U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,018, dated Aug. 21, 2001 has been granted for said invention.
With the increasing use and popularity of miniaturized display devices and availability of automated abbreviation methods there is an urgent need to devise methods for instant and automated formatting of information array displays within predetermined two dimensional display space constraint with optimum allocation and use of the available display space so that wastage of space is minimized and readability of the information is preserved.